Kyle Stapleton Interview, October 13, 2020

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Dylan McAdams: Hello, my name is Dylan McAdams is October 13
12:03pm. And please introduce yourself What is your name?
Kyle Stapleton: My name is Kyle Stapleton from Atlanta, Georgia,
I work at Warner media in the studios group. I think you and
do I have permission to record this interview? Yes, absolutely.
Dylan McAdams: All right, let's get started. So first, just kind
of tell me about what you do for your job, like what department
you work for. and kinda like a little bit about what what
you're kind of like your, what you do for your, your job.
Kyle Stapleton: Sure, so my title is senior manager of
culture and experience for Warner media studios.I sit on
the operations team, and I am in people operations, essentially.
So my job is to design and manage processes that help our
creative people. So we're an organization of 300 or so
production and post production artists, people with highly
technical and specialized skills and great creative imaginations,
right people that you want to, you want to find and hold on
tightly to. So it's my job to design and, and sustain
processes that enable their best work, remove obstacles to their
best work, attract the next generation of people like them,
help them future proof their skills, and generally create an
inclusive environment where creatives can do what they do
best.
Dylan McAdams: And how long have you worked in this position?
Kyle Stapleton: November will be four years. So I started the day
before the last presidential election. So it's been very easy
to count the days.
Dylan McAdams: Definitely, yeah. So what made you choose this
type of field to to go into?
Kyle Stapleton: It's a great question i got i was a marketing
undergrad, the first major that I ever declared in college was
English. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, I was an art kid, I
love to draw and paint and read. But I didn't necessarily want to
make a living from that or try to, because it was an escape,
and it was something that I loved. And when I love
something, I tend to put my full, my full force of my spirit
behind it and and, you know, tend to burn out occasionally as
a result. So the things that make me happy and that I'm
passionate about, I tend to kind of compartmentalize and keep
separate, right. So finding the balance between how to make a
living and how to make a life has always been a tension in my
life. So I was a marketing undergrad, because that seemed
like the best of both worlds between business acumen driving
business outcomes and getting to be creative for a living. I
graduated into the teeth of the recession in 2009. And I more or
less immediately, I got a full time job at the university that
I just graduated from, was very fortunate to do that and had a
mentor that encouraged me to get my MBA, so that I would be more
competitive coming out of the economic downturn. And he was
right. So I got my MBA, and I worked for a real estate
developer, because I thought that was just the kind of job
you were supposed to get. And you had an MBA was like a
really, really busy job. And I was wrong. And then I met
somebody who had just left the journalism world and gone into
the PR agency world. And she introduced me to this agency
she'd started working at. And I'd never considered the agency
world because I've heard horror stories about turnover and just
the grind of billable hours and stuff like that. And it reminded
me of some of the things that I didn't like about the idea of
law, the other professional services around that I've
considered. But this particular agency had amazing people and I
met them and fell in love and wound up there for a number of
years and worked on brand strategy and strategic
communications and ads and digital and so I got to get my
hands on a lot of creative stuff, but then got fixated on
this idea of making work better and the future of work and org
design type of stuff that I had studied and and really started
to develop a POV around when I was in my MBA program wanted to
be a management consultant that didn't have to live out of a
suitcase, five days a year, four or five days a week for five to
10 years. So I was really fortunate that when Turner was
reorganizing, few years ago, in 2015, a leader took over the
studios group and had some strong ideas and bold vision
about how to change the culture of this great organization to
maximize its potential. And she did her homework around, you
know, kind of was the cutting edge of cultural transformation.
And she created my job description and made a case for
the role and I was lucky through some, some community connections
to hear about the role and I applied and was extremely
privileged to fall into it. And that's been my life for the past
few years is trying to think about the future of work and how
to make it better.
Dylan McAdams: That's very interesting. Um, so do you think
now that you're in your career now, but your education kind of
helped you a bit and getting to this position now? Or is this as
long as you learned on the job?
Kyle Stapleton: I have thought about this a great deal. I, you
know, coming out of school into a recession and not feeling
particularly marketable with a bachelor's degree. My initial
gut at 22 was to have disdain for it and be like, Well, that
was a waste of my time, I was on a full scholarship in undergrad.
So I couldn't really be like, that was a huge waste of my
money. I was so glad I did it. But I was just like, I don't
know. The older I get, the more I feel like two things are
really important for my education. One was I learned how
to learn at a higher level, at a great, like really upper middle
class public school education. I mean, I went to private school
quality public schools, where I grew up. And I was always really
fortunate there. And I've always loved to learn, but I think more
open ended, not transactional, right? Dude, submit these
correct or incorrect answers, get this result on a test, where
it was more ambiguous, and you had to have a point of view and
you had to be able to articulate that point of view. And you had
to tackle conversations with no answers. That was the kind of
like Socratic type stuff that I started experiencing in college.
So I think very much that type of comfort with discomfort
prepared me for a field that's always changing, and it's about
humans, so there are no finite, universal answers. And then the
other thing was, I went to Georgia State University, I went
to one of the most diverse schools in the country and in
the world. And so I got exposure to lots of different cultures
and walks of life and lived experiences that were so alien
to me. That that it truly did open my eyes in a way that I
wish everyone can have that kind of experience in college, I
think college at its best, can make you the best version of
your young self, or can show you the possibilities of your best
self. And that's one of the ways because it shows you who you
are, who you aren't, what you what you have had, that you
maybe weren't aware of, and other things like that. So just
cultural competency, just learning to listen better, and
appreciate people for who they are, where they come from, and
having grown up in a fairly homogenous, suburban southern
town. That was more valuable than I could have ever known,
especially as our awareness of the value of diversity and
building inclusion and translating that into equity and
justice in our country as those conversations accelerate. You
know, I've been very excited because I've I've wanted those
conversations to come along for for a long time to come to the
forefront of our society. So I think if you if you do it right
in college, classroom, a lot of times this is still kind of
whatever to me and, you know, all due respect to the academics
in my life that I love. But it's it's what you make of all the
parts between classes that can then make or break the quality
of your experience and how it translates.
Dylan McAdams: Right, interesting. Okay, moving
forward a little bit. kitaen you kind of talked about a little
bit about your job and your position. Can you kind of walk
me through a what you do on a daily basis?
Kyle Stapleton: No Two days are alike. Sometimes I wish they
were, but every time I say that, I remind myself that I hate how
much I hate being bored. You know, 2020 is a skewed that so
much but I mean, you know, generally I am in the corporate
world. So it's a lot of emails and a lot of meetings. But it's
some some stuff between strategizing and moving big
programmatic elements word. So I'll tell you about my day so
far today. And that's maybe a snapshot. One, there's a lot of
uncertainty in the world and in the workforce right now. And a
lot of our anxiety around that has come from our junior
employees. So our general manager has set aside time to do
an Ask me anything ama with groups of, you know, Junior
craftspeople by by the type of work that they do. So all the
junior editors, all the junior designers, and then all the
junior production people, all the junior operations people in
a really intimate setting so that they can feel candid and
safe in in asking questions and feeling vulnerable, and all
that. So we have three or four of those coming up in the next
few days. And earlier, we review the questions we've received so
far in advance, we drafted a reminder email to send to them
for what to expect. So just preparation for for a
programmatic thing. The other big thing is we're putting on a
huge, we're putting on our third annual big Adobe max inspired
creative conference that's entirely for us and by us, where
we do skill sharing and knowledge sharing. So typically,
that's a three day all day in person thing like a true
conference. But since we're all at our houses, we have been
translating that to virtual. So I would say three to four hours
of my day, every day, for the past two weeks, and certainly
through the event itself at the end of this month. half my day
or so is providing creative feedback on stuff like the
graphics packages, providing the presenters with feedback on
their sessions. copywriting descriptions are now this year
editing my team's copywriting descriptions. Just kind of
moving the ball forward status meetings, check in stuff like
that just to ensure the overall creative product is what it
needs to be so generally touching some part of big
programmatic stuff every day and a lot of conversations. Since
every project that is a recurring project for us, has
new challenges and wrinkles, because of 2020. There's a lot
of sitting on WebEx calls where we sit in silence a little bit
as we try to work through the critical thinking in our heads
of the tough questions, we're having to ask about stuff. How,
how do we pull off x, y, z now, we're also building a talent
development platform. So we're having lots of hard
conversations around that. Just treading a lot of new ground
asking a lot of tough questions doing that through
collaboration, on video chat, and on a ton on Slack, share
documents, stuff like that. So just, uh, you know, I could just
generalize and say a lot, a lot of collaboration and
communication type of stuff, but really just trying to like chip
away at Big, big projects, every single day. And every day, it
looks a little different, but but that's generally the shape
they take.
Dylan McAdams: How, how different is your day today now
as it compared to what it was before 2020, before COVID really
kind of started hitting the United States.
Kyle Stapleton: At first, it was easy to say that it was
extremely different. Certain things went away. So like, you
know, we have a big beautiful studio facility in the town
Atlanta with seven studios. And we were we were giving about 150
tours to Brand Partners to students to groups that we
wanted to work for or with us or who or who did but just didn't
know enough about us yet. So my team was doing a ton of that.
And the last tour I think was March 9 or 10th. Before the day
that we got the directive to start working from home. So
that's a huge component that's been missing. Because, you know,
we probably did three or four of those a week. There's a lot more
communication and checking in, like helping our executives or
leaders communicate and check in. Because they're, you know,
they're people feel less connected, they are anxious
about the work bill, they are actually working the same
amount, if not more, as we keep trying to, you know, people are
home, they want to content. So our people are working as hard
as ever. So also helping our leaders keep a pulse on just
like how our people are doing as people and providing our
managers with the kind of middle management best practices around
giving people grace and flexibility knowing that they
have more real life stuff to deal with, or are like, kind of
more intermingled in the work day than ever before. So we, you
know, we did, I would say, we were on the right side of things
with that, in general, culturally speaking with like
letting people have their lives and doing right by them. But
there's been a sharper focus on that. There should have been I'm
glad that all that's been accelerated. But that's that's
been the big change is just so much of my job is really an
internal communications job right now, just helping people
feel connected and formed, engaged, less anxious, reminding
people how much is out of our control, but we will absolutely
keep everything under control that we can communicate those
things and that we understand when we validate what they're
feeling. Human beings type work therapy work, I guess, has been
the big change, I would say.
Dylan McAdams: And you mentioned that your your work, no longer
work in the office? Are you working from home full time or
only part like only part time like going in every other week
or so?
Kyle Stapleton: No, we are I would say 95%, fully working
from home, our entire workforce of a few hundred people. And
that was a really big endeavor for us, because our people work
on big specialized, you know, high powered technical equipment
to do what they do. And our media management enterprise is
massive, like big files got to move around really quickly,
right. And if you're on deadline and your technology craps out on
you, then that's, that's an exponentially bigger issue than
if you're like a filing clerk. So that that was a whole thing.
I think the latest that I have heard is that we will probably
be in this configuration until mid year, next year, right until
the circumstances change around cases. And or there's a vaccine
that is scientifically reputable, and we you know, we
can trust the scientific experts on it. And people feel safe
getting that vaccine, and we have good protocols in place.
The only people going into campus who are part of studios
right now are people working on productions, primarily sports
productions. And even then it's a skeleton crew compared to what
it normally is anyone who can work from home kind of is and
the people who are in we have tons of PE and protocols in
place to keep people safe. And it's, it's really, really
regimented, and it's really different. Everybody has to have
special approval from like my boss's boss's boss, to be
approved security clearance to come to campus. So they're
taking that super seriously for people safety, which is great.
But, you know, as a result, I would say maybe 5% of our
workforce has even been to tech to our tech Wood campus. And
this all went down. And that configuration will we won't be
back at 100% people on campus all the time, maybe ever. You
know, I think it's opened up new possibilities in terms of
flexibility virtualization, people who have expressed
desires to change the way that they work. And we can work it
out with our partners at the brands and our company, the
producers and stuff. We're going to find ways to to accommodate
that and to make shifts, none of that would have, I think, been
really permissible. Before all this went down, but this year,
as you know, has totally changed the conversation.
Dylan McAdams: And
How has like the the new office dynamic been compared to how it
was before COVID?
Kyle Stapleton: I think we're still figuring that out. Um, you
know, there were, there were a few months of the first probably
three months where, okay, this is not normal, that, you know,
we don't have to, like, adjust our rhythms for this, we're just
reacting and we're surviving, and we're figuring it out. And
then now that we have crossed the six month threshold, it's
evident that this is we're gonna have to set new baselines around
everything, right, and we're staring, we're in q4 of 2020,
we're staring down the barrel of 2021, we're knowing that we have
probably more than likely at least six months, like this
before we start getting people back into the office and
meaningful numbers. So we got to think about how to make this
more sustainable for people, right. And some of that is in
adapting some of the things that may in our culture or culture,
like learning touchpoints and community building and
mentorship, the mentorship and relationships thing is, you
know, nobody I've talked to who does what I do has the silver
bullet for for that, because you just can't replicate the like
actual physical, physiological vibrations of being the error
people, there's, there's a thing that can't, can't be
manufactured around that, right. So how do you make the best of
what you have. And a lot of that, I think just has to do
with helping people feel seen. And, you know, when they want to
be seen and connected to others and giving them the flexibility
to like, be on their own, live their lives, have more time with
their families whenever possible. Essentially, it looks
like renegotiating the contract, so to speak, of what it means to
be on our team doing this work together shared in the same
purpose. Like, we got to think a lot more critically about, about
what that looks like.
Dylan McAdams: What was your first reaction when COVID like
really hit the United States?
Kyle Stapleton: I was one of those people. That I mean, it's
surreal, right? It was surreal for me, and for the people
around me just like, oh, wow, this really is a thing. You
know, I don't think there's anything that could have
prepared me to be told, you're going to be stuck at your house,
you know, this is 1918, Spanish Flu level, the whole world is
going to be stuck in their houses for most of the rest of
this year. And like, you know, everything you had planned to
do, music, festivals, travel, all that that's going to be
canceled for the rest of the year. I just didn't, in, in my
reptile brain believe that anything would be possible to
take the pace of life totally off of its rails. You know, it
just there's no way that I could internalize that thought. So for
the first month or so, I was just taking it one day at a
time. You know, I didn't really take any of my stuff home from
my desk I it was a novelty the first few days and, and a day
turned into another day turned into a week turned into two
weeks turn in the four weeks turn into eight weeks. And then
I was like, Oh my god, this is this is the way that it's gonna
be for a while and you, I'm just one of those people. I don't
know if like this, if everybody is this way, or they're more
thoughtful, like the effects didn't start dawning on me.
Except in retrospect, only after it had been a few months. And
you know, you start sleeping in a little later and you you're,
you just struggle to be productive at the same level
because you don't get the same amount of energy from being
around other people and running around all day. And normally My
job involves a lot of running around seeing people checking
in, in a physical space. And you know, now I sit in front of a
computer screen all day and I'm much more sedentary than I was
and it took me a while To realize the effect that that was
having on my mental and physical health. To the point that like I
had a breaking point, I bought a bicycle and I like, go out and
spend spend a little bit of time on my bike every day, just
trying to get some fresh air because like, that was so built
into my unconscious routines that work just moving between
buildings, spending time outside my quad on campus, like, I had
to manufacture those moments, and my own day to day life now.
And it's also hard not to feel guilty when you work and live in
the same place. Like, you know, you got to step away, logically,
everybody does that. But the temptation is there to start
working earlier, stay working later, there's always stuff to
do. And you just don't have any unconscious barriers, like a
commute to help you separate. So you can end up whining, you can
wind up developing some pretty bad habits pretty quickly. And I
don't mean to say that any of that in like a, in a whiny or
willful way, because I'm extremely fortunate to have this
job and to be in a role where I can help. Other people do not
have to go through that. But to some degree, we all have to go
through that, because there's no real way out of it. You just got
to do the best you can with the circumstances that you have,
there's so much it's out of our control. But you know, I I've,
I've struggled with it candidly, it's this is not, this has not
been my jam, I think great things have come out of it, that
will change the way that I work and live forever. And most of
them ultimately will be positive, but they were born of
super negative circumstances, but it will make me more
thoughtful. As a person who designs how we ways we work. It
will make me thoughtful and considered in ways I probably
never would have been otherwise.
Dylan McAdams: At any point, were you scared that you that
your job may be cut from the company. lot of people were
afraid with a lot of downsizing going on. Does that ever cross
your mind?
Kyle Stapleton: Sure. I still am. Frankly, I think, you know,
economically the thing on this the the tail on this thing as
long. So it's going to be a couple of years before we're
able to recover. I think what happens politically at the
federal level, and, you know, the macro economic forces that
take shape in January of next year, one way or another will
will continue to have an impact Bay. I don't think we're out of
these woods for two or three more years economically, which
will have implications on big companies like mine, right? So
yes, but to some degree, I think change is a constant in all
industries right now, especially in one like media, you know,
where people are competing for subscriptions, and the kind of
new new wave of the media industry with companies like
Apple and Netflix and people like that. That, you know, it's
the Wild West right now. And what happens in the next year or
two in the industry is probably going to solidify the next five
or 10 years of that business. So we're having to constantly
change and pivot and adapt. And uncertainty is baked into pretty
much every minute of every day. So yeah, I'm afraid but not to
the degree that like I let it bother me. It's like if it
happens, it happens. And I'll just put on LinkedIn that had
happened and try to try to get after the next thing. I'm less
worried about that. I mean, I empathize with anyone in their
20s in their first or second job. Who is much more
vulnerable, but I think I'm right over that threshold where,
like, I there's nothing that scares me that much. Because I
feel equipped to just deal with it. I have the relationships and
the network and, you know, the the resources to to figure it
out quickly and bounce back. My You know, my focus is more on on
our younger employees who don't have that framework. They don't
have that safety net, and it's a much scarier prospect. You know,
I want to everybody's got to deal with that at some point in
their career. Just the, the anxiety around uncertainty and,
you know, God forbid, sometimes the loss of a job But I want to
take as much of the sting out of that as possible, and help
people focus on just getting getting to do the job that they
get to do.
Dylan McAdams: So now that you can't be in person to like help
people in your in your team, what are some methods that you
have gone to kind of help them through this time.
Kyle Stapleton: Everybody's experiencing zoom fatigue now.
So some of the things we did early, the novel things to just
get to see each other like, regular virtual happy hours. You
know, that stuff is not really sustainable, right? Because you
don't, you don't get the best parts of that which are
physically being around people and just soaking up their vibe.
So we've tried to be really careful with how much novel
social stuff we do. We've done little gifts and acknowledgments
to let people know that we are thinking about them. And we're
grateful for the work that they've like, we just got a new,
we just renamed ourselves as part of our company's
transformation from Turner studios to Warner media studios,
got a new logo as part of that. So since everybody's at home
setting in their AC, we get branded hoodies for everyone and
mailed them to everyone's houses. And that was well
received. Mostly it's just providing mental health
resources, letting people know they have options from the
company in terms of caregiver support and childcare support,
and letting them know the focus, you know, in the big kind of
policy things and also in the soft, like, between the lines
way that managers treat employees, as trying to create a
culture of care where flexibility is the the big
important part, we just communicate with each other, and
we stay in touch. So the lines are so blurred between people's
professional and personal life that just giving grace and space
has really been the most important part of all this. It's
hard to have fun, it's hard to focus on fun, you know, I'd love
to get back to a world where we can focus on the fun more. But
for now, I think the best that we can do is acknowledge how
phenomenally people have adapted and tell the stories of the
great work that people have done and the innovative things people
have done, in spite of the new obstacles, and how it's actually
propelled some of the best innovation we've probably ever
done as a group. And to just let people have space. Other than
that, let them know that we're, we're here for them. We're
grateful for the contributions that they make, so that we, so
we want to reward that in kind with just like letting them
navigate their lives more easily helping them navigate their
lives more easily, I guess.
Dylan McAdams: OK, what do you think your greatest challenge
has been so far with facing COVID?
Kyle Stapleton: I'm just just living not to be glib. A lot of
people have COVID stories, you know, it's it's touched everyone
within a couple of degrees, right? So all of the, you know,
that old saying you never know, just be kind to people, you
never know what they're going through. That's come to the
surface for pretty much everyone. Right? We're all like,
a lot of people are grieving different things and going
through, like, highly extraordinary circumstances. So
the question when we're done,
Dylan McAdams: What do you think your greatest challenge has been
facing COVID?
Kyle Stapleton: Yeah. I think it's just been challenging to
carry on. I mean, not at the risk of sounding morbid. Lots of
stuff has happened to lots of people. You know, just there,
there has been a lot of sickness and death in people's families.
And so bereavement is more of a thing. And professionally, we
know the work has to go on, right? We got to keep the train
moving. But personally, we all know as individuals, it's harder
than ever to do that. So it's hard to stay motor You know,
it's, it's tough, it's a tough time. But we recognize we're
really lucky to get to do the work that we do. So that paradox
doesn't sit well with anyone, right? Like, we know, these
multitudes of things are all true, equally at the same time,
just a hard time to be alive. And figuring out, like, normally
having those kinds of conversations where you'd like
struggle openly is a really personal and private thing.
Like, generally, generationally or whatever, that hasn't really
been an accepted facet of work, right? You do believe that at
the door, you show up, you do the job. And things are just so
extraordinary that we can't really do that anymore, right?
We have, we physically have access into people's personal
lives, because we see their homes as the background of their
office. We know what's going on with their kids, and, you know,
their parents and their siblings, because of times that
it like takes them away from meetings and doing the job and
whatever, and you have to be flexible on account for that. So
the line is so blurred now, for so many reasons that the
challenges, we have to accept all that comes with that
emotionally and spiritually. And that that makes both things. In
some ways, it makes both things easier, but in some ways, it
makes both things professional and personal, harder.
Dylan McAdams: Okay, switching gears a bit, talk about the
company that you work for. What was a warnermedia is like first
reaction when COVID hit.
Kyle Stapleton: A, you know, at every turn, I've been really
pleasantly surprised. As I was a punk rock kid, I didn't think
there was any way that a big capitalist enterprise could
handle something like this with any amount of grace or humanity.
But I've been really present pleasantly surprised when
there's been a choice to be made between the right thing for
people or the right thing for the business, they've tried to
make the people first choice. They've emphasized safety at
absolutely every turn, they've emphasized additional resources
for helping people live their lives and tend to themselves and
their loved ones, they've tried to create new cultural norms. Or
try to amplify cultural norms that already exists, and
frankly, around flexibility and doing what you need to do and
you know, not micromanaging each other and understanding that
like, they're going to be times when you need to step in and do
way more. And they're going to be times when you have to step
away to deal with your own stuff. But just like be
empathetic, no matter which side of that coin you're on at a
given moment. they donate a they donated a lot of time and money
toward more actively and aggressively getting invested in
anti racism. Like I think our company has always had
progressive values, but knowing that there was an opportunity to
be more pointed and culture shaping, that's come more to the
forefront. And that's, you know, they jumped right in. And we're
we're extremely frank and candid and raw about that stuff in a
way that I didn't see other companies doing. So have I been
perfect? Absolutely not. There have been a lot of things that I
was like. But the big things, the big moments where they had
an opportunity to either get it really right or really wrong. I
think they're kind they're really right. So I that has made
me proud to be an employee. And that's meant a lot to me, just
as a person.
Dylan McAdams: Do. Do you think that media companies, both other
Warner media divisions, and other media companies have done
a good job of handling COVID? If you know of anything?
Kyle Stapleton: You know, for companies broadly, I think it's
varied drastically. It's hard to say. I think big media companies
largely haven't had much of a choice because a lot of work
that we do is so up close and personal. Just knowing that like
all production, shut down completely for a minute and
we're just now figuring out ways to get get it back online. I
know it has impacted everyone. Right and I think everybody has
been mindful from What I've seen as the safety protocols, and
I've shared across the industry best practices and what seems to
be working and what doesn't. You know, because we also share a
lot of freelance talent that works across the different
properties that we that we all produce. So I think we have a
responsibility to our people to do the right thing. Now. I think
what we'll be really telling is in the next year, how different
companies deal with the economic impact the revenue shortfall of
the next year, right, and how humanistically they, they handle
all that. So I, I haven't seen anything that that is really
super disappointed me from from any company so far, right? If
everybody tried to do the right and human thing. But TBD.
Dylan McAdams: How are you and your colleagues kind of like
taking these changes to your company? Has there been any
pushback from any of your colleagues? Or or some of the
changes that they're that they're making? Are these
changes that you would have made as well?
Kyle Stapleton: largely, yes. The interesting insight, for me
has been the different perspectives and life
experiences that people bring to this stuff, right? If people
have family members with immuno compromised, or, or they have
their own immune situations, they are bringing a much
different perspective than somebody who lives on their own
and gets all of their human interaction and, you know, a lot
of the inner energizing in their day to day out of being around
their professional colleagues. Those two people are going to
have a much different opinion on coming back to work, when and
how to do that. And some people are really pushing us to try to
get back into the office as quickly as possible, and some
people want to hold out on that for as long as possible. So I
think just remembering that people aren't a monolith. And
the so much of what they're asking about and suggesting is
coming from like a very personal individual place. So trying to
build policy that splits the difference, and also follows the
science is, that's a delicate balance. And I think overall,
we've done that really well. But just getting people comfort,
comfortable with imperfection. We're all just human beings who
are dealing with something unprecedented and trying to
think critically the best we can, but there's really no
paradigm for any aspect of us. Just we got to do a lot of
reminding each other of that, but you know, my perspective of
somebody as somebody who represents tries to represent
the voice of the people is I was surprised that the people are
less of one voice than I thought they would be.
Dylan McAdams: And
How has COVID and like your jobs, new policies of working
from home kind of affected your relationships and family life?
Kyle Stapleton: Well, um, so I have a brother with multiple
sclerosis, and a pregnant wife and a sister who just had a baby
and was was very pregnant when this all kind of came to bear.
So I had to be on the extra cautious side because of all of
all of the vulnerable people to consider. So in those ways, it's
brought us all closer because we've had to we've had to
navigate those extraordinary circumstances with kind of a
heightened sense of responsibility or feeling of
anxiety. I don't know. I think we all miss getting to see each
other on a regular basis that we normally do. I really like being
at home every day with my wife I'm, it's I've also enjoyed
being able to take 30 minutes to like go work on something in the
nursery that we're building and when I've had a particularly
stressful day, I go out in the driveway and take my leaf blower
and blow the driveway and just having the clean off driveway
and getting To be barefoot in the grass is kind of a Zen thing
for me. And I never took moments like that. In the in the day to
day and you know, I still and to, to compress with meetings
and stuff like that in the normal day, but the little stuff
means more with family and with home, the little stuff is a lot
bigger than it ever was before.
Dylan McAdams: Yeah, wrapping up to our conclusion questions.
Um, do you believe that media in studio companies will be
different after COVID has passed? Do you think a lot of
these changes will kind of stay in place? And you mentioned
earlier how you think your division will find a way to
really make work from home be a permanent thing for some people?
Do you think that will stick for everyone?
Kyle Stapleton: Yes, I think the workflow, the way that content
gets made, will change significantly the the genies out
of the bottle now, we found new ways to do things, we've
compressed five or 10 years of innovation into six months, and
it just would not make sense to go back to the old ways of doing
things. So decisions we make around technology and workflow
will change forever. And then I think the expectations around
what content looks likewill be different forever. Certainly
more of an expectation of interactivity. And it doesn't
have to be a 30 minute HBO quality, you know, feature film
looking experience, I think, the more the more people can do with
less, the quality of the story will always shine through no
matter what the tools people use. So I think it's accelerated
democratize storytelling. And people finding something
original to say, in a time where everybody was grieving and
trying to process the same life events at the same time. I think
the search for original voices will be on in a way that it's
never been before.
Dylan McAdams: And you do think that this is going to be a
really good evolution for the field?
Kyle Stapleton: I do I do. I'm super super bullish on it. I'm
very positive.
Dylan McAdams: And lastly, are there any questions that are
anything that you want to say that I may have missed? Or kind
of just brushed over very quickly?
Kyle Stapleton: No, you've been very thorough, I appreciate the
opportunity to chat about this. Um, I think the only thing that
I would say conclusion is for people that are studying now and
just starting in their careers, you know, I know economically,
it's precarious politically, it's precarious right now. But
the the world out there, especially in a creative
business, like ours is waiting eagerly for you. And I think the
tone around young people has kind of shifted generationally,
hopefully the millennials are the last people who catch a
bunch of shit for being young and different. We're very
bullish on Gen Z, and Gen alpha, and how you can break down the
anathema of the way we've always done things. And it may be tough
sledding for the first few years just because the world's
literally on fire and the economy is in a crazy place. But
do your best to push through bring your full self to the work
that you do. And I really, truly do believe that you can be the
ones to change the world for the better.
Dylan McAdams: There's one more question, and are you still
happy in this field with all the changes going on?
Kyle Stapleton: I'm as happy as a person can be in 2020 in full
existential crisis mode. I still think being in a business where
we bring people closer to the things that they love and the
things that bring them closer to other people. Getting to shape
culture every day and an era where that matters more than
ever before. Felt like what we're doing is central and
vital. And I feel really privileged to be part of it. And
yeah, it's hard. It's challenging. But I remain
optimistic that the juice is worth the squeeze.
Dylan McAdams: Right. So thank you for taking the time to speak
with me today. Your interview has been very enlightening, and
they're actually proud, a very valuable contribution to my
understanding of the media and broadcasting industry in the age
of COVID. Thank you very much.
Kyle Stapleton: Thank you, Dylan. I appreciate you reaching
out and keep me posted on on the output of all this right

Description: This interview discusses how Covid-19 has affected the broadcast media industry of a media company. This interview provides an in-depth look at how the news team is running now that Covid-19 is in full swing. Interview conducted virtually via TheirStory.

In collections

Behind the Scenes of the Media Industry During COVID: An Oral History Project

Details

Title: Kyle Stapleton Interview, October 13, 2020
Creator(s): Kyle Stapleton ; Dylan McAdams
Interviewee: Kyle Stapleton
Interviewer: Dylan McAdams
Created: October 13, 2020
Topical Subject(s): media ; news ; WarnerMedia ; COVID-19 ; Coronavirus ; Atlanta, GA ; Turner Media ; work from home ; economy
Continent: North and Central America
Country: United States
Rights Statement: American University may copy, use, and distribute to the public the Collection including but not limited to my interview (and other items above) for educational and promotional purposes. Both the Interviewee and Interviewer will retain licenses to use these materials for any future purpose.
URI / Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/1961/humanitiestruck:2620

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